


Like an Astronaut

by Lady_Of_Ink



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gay Male Character, Lemon, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Minor Character Death, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-03 18:52:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12152703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Of_Ink/pseuds/Lady_Of_Ink
Summary: “According to what it’s known on Sibun, those who suffer from the Astronaut’s Syndrome are convinced they’re feeling another person’s pain, even if this person is light-years away from them, suffering from the same disease, hurting themselves in the same spot the other has an injury and communicating with the other by dreaming. And this person is always an inhabitant of the Earth.”~Oikawa Tooru is a promising pilot on Sibun, a planet of the Trappist-1 System.For a couple of days now, though, he’s been dreaming of being in a beautiful place with another person, Iwaizumi Hajime, an inhabitant of Earth. However, people on Sibun think Earth is hostile and that there’s no possibility of life there. Those who think otherwise are considered insane.Tooru doesn’t know what to do, until he finds out that the Earth is really dying…





	1. Chapter One

_I was just an only child of the universe_

_And then I found you_

_[…]_

_You’re just the last of the real ones_

 

**_Chapter One_ **

**_~_ **

**_First Act_ **

 

 

 

 

_It was the first time he happened to dream something like that._

_He was on top of a mountain and a beautiful view was spread out before his eyes, water of what seemed to be the sea glistened in the sunlight. Everything was the green shade of trees and pink from the sunrays disappearing in the distance._

_He admired the scenery, enraptured, an amazed sound slipping out of his lips._

_But he wasn’t the only one enjoying the view. He realized he had company when he looked around, noticing a huge crater behind him, so deep that if he fell into it, he’d be swallowed by darkness forever._

_A guy who looked like he had to be his age was a few meters away from him and was too totally rapt, taking in every single detail of the view, to even notice his presence._

_He got closer, tilting his head, and only then did the other one jump, startled, and furrow his eyebrows._

_“Who are you?” he breathed._

_“You know… I could ask you the same question.”_

 

**_*_ **

 

_Sibun, forty light-years from Solar System_

  


“Shimizu-san!” a petite girl with blond short hair roughly gathered in a hair clip was waving her arms to get noticed by her friend who was running towards her like mad.

The other girl stopped a few minutes later, breathing heavily and taking deep breaths. “Sorry I’m late!” she said, when able to talk, swallowing thickly.

Everyone in the hangar smiled to her before going back to watch what was happening on the screens. The Team Coach, Keishin Ukai only gave her a sidelong gaze, more nervous than ever; only Takeda-sensei, technical manager, smiled at her and waved hello.

“How’s it going?” she asked, dead serious.

“Kageyama and Hinata are competing for the third place; Daichi and Asahi have fallen behind and Tanaka’s gone off track.” Yachi answered, looking at said pilot. He was muttering something through his teeth, probably insulting the remaining pilots.

The fact that he didn’t try to jump on Shimizu as he usually did meant he was too focused on the race to even think about her, at the moment.

She shifted closer, resting her hand on his shoulder. He went still under her touch, shoulders almost trembling. She knew that smell all too well…

“It’s not your fault.” she said to him.

That was enough for Tanaka to burst into tears of joy, brushing away the tears with his arm. “SHIMIZU-SAN!” he started blabbering, soon followed by Nishinoya, one of the test pilots who couldn’t help but envy his friend.

“Calm down, you two!” Ukai yelled out, cigarette between his lips, though it had been out for a while.

A familiar rumble shook them all and everyone in the hangar turned almost in sync towards the track: the plastic roof covered it all, but it was still possible to see what was happening through it, people on the bleachers had stood up, cheering the competitors on. A white and blue starship was about to overtake a white and purple one.

“Oikawa wants to pinch the first place from Ushijima…” Sugawara whispered, he was the Head of Engineers’ team designated to starships’ maintenance. Becoming a racer was pretty noteworthy on Sibun: it was the sporting event people looked forward to the most, and every year each hangar chose its best pilots in order to pass the two qualification rounds and get to the final, where only the best three could compete. It was for this exact reasons that the whole Karasuno hangar was extremely nervous, since its long lost reputation depended on it, and a place in the final was worth more than anything else.

Some shifted their gaze on the video cameras to be able to see every angle of the track, the two rival starships almost brushing against each other, while Karasuno’s own two orange and black ones were a little behind. They all jumped when the blue starship was about to overtake the purple one, but then it didn’t and it just went back to its previous position.

“Come on guys…” Takeda whispered.

Despite being partners, Karasuno’s starships looked like they were fighting for the last place left. It was the one marked with the nine that crossed the finish line first when the other two had already reached their destination.

Cries of joy rose inside the hangar. “We did it!”

  
  
  


The pilots had just returned to their respective hangar with the press and fans suffocating them.

“There were no doubts it’d be Ushijima Wakatoshi to cross the finish line first!” one of the many closer interviewers said, her oval video camera fluctuating in front of her. “Could it be your chance to be three-time champion?”

“Kageyama Tobio has surprised us, instead!” another presenter affirmed, him too with his personal video camera, focusing on said pilot, who didn’t seem to be happy about his placement however, while being hugged by his teammates.

The other Karasuno’s pilot, Hinata Shoyo, came out of his starship right that moment, fuming, and the cameras ensured to properly catch the scene.

“But the real track star it’s him, as always…” the female interviewer continued, and her small robot focused on the figure that was coming out of the white and blue starship, removing his helmet and waving his brown hair sending millions of fans into raptures.

Oikawa Tooru climbed down his beloved starship with a jump, joining his teammates and his Team Coach and they all complimented him with powerful pats on the back.

“When you hit Wakatoshi’s starship, we feared the worst!” Hanamaki, Head Engineer, uttered, grabbing him by the neck and starting to rub his knuckles on Oikawa’s nape.

Oikawa broke free from his grasp some time later, laughing. Then his eyes shifted to his rivals, resolute. “I’ve surpassed my pupil… Now all that I need to do is surpass Ushijima!”

He grinned, showing his teeth, both Shiratorizawa hangar and Karasuno hangar were staring at him and his teammates, they all looked like three lions fighting for the same prey. He turned his head a few moments later, in order to get out of his pilot suit which was the same colors of his starship and then answer the journalists’ questions.

This year, he was certain, he was going to be the champion.

 

*****

 

_Earth, forty light-year from Trappist-1 System_

 

A little girl with a fringe covering her eyes was running down a dirt road. There were only fields surrounding her, mostly rice fields, and her nice shoes sank into puddles of dirty, brown water. She stopped right in front of a field after a while, one of her eyes left uncovered by the fringe, breathing heavily. In front of her, a figure with a mask covering his mouth and nose was weeding the very delicate plants.

The little girl, who was only ten years old, smiled, immediately recognizing who the figure was. “Iwaizumi-san!”

The guy raised his gaze, then he removed his mask and smiled at her. “Hi Haruka.” he said then, walking slowly on the watery ground, and with a small effort he went to her side.

She swung a basket before Iwaizumi. “Mum finally made a pie. And I brought the book you wanted!”

“Really, a pie?” he said, taking the basket and peeking inside. There actually was a piece of pie inside a transparent plastic box. “Are those blackberries?”

Haruka nodded vigorously. “I borrowed them from the fruit seller down in the city. He had a lot of fruit, I’ve never seen that much fruit before!”

Iwaizumi lifted his eyes from the basket, pointing them on her. “Haruka…” he said softly. “You know you shouldn’t steal…”

The little girl lowered her gaze, her cheeks reddening. “But mum wanted to make pie so bad! Our hen laid eggs for the first time in ages!”

He sighed. Their mothers had been friends since high school, and since Hajime’s mother had gone, Haruka and her family had always took care of him and his father. He knew the kid since she was in diapers, it was normal for him to act like a not-so-strict big brother around her.

He brushed her jet-black hair with his still gloved hand. “Promise me you won’t do it again… understood?”

Her sea blue eye visible through the fringe almost glistened with happiness. “Okay.”

They headed towards the house behind them, just a few meters away, with its once red pitched roof and reinforced concrete walls.

“Dad!” Hajime called once inside the house and a figure appeared from behind a little, half disassembled television set,. “Haruka’s here to see us!”

“I’ve brought a piece of blackberry pie!” she exclaimed, hugging the man who had finally climbed over the tools scattered all around.

“Tinkering with that TV in search of a functioning station again?” he asked scrunching his nose.

“There are still some transmitting channels, have faith, son!” he went to stood in front of the TV turning it on with the remote and it didn’t take long for the image of a woman wearing a red tailleur to appear on the screen. She was reading the news. “See?”

Hajime grunted, taking the book and the pie out of the basket; he only took one bite then handed it to his father who ate with gusto.

“Haruka, compliments to your mum, it’s delicious, I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten a pie like this one!” he said and then turned to his son. “Are you sure you don’t want it anymore?”

“I’m not hungry, dad – then he turned his eyes to Haruka, sitting before him, and smiled at her – and don’t worry, it really is delicious!”

Haruka mirrored his smile, sparing curious glances to the book her friend was browsing. It was one of the volumes her mother kept from her long gone years at university.

“Why did you need mum’s book?”

He shrugged. “I’ve had a weird dream tonight and I wanted to know if it was just me going insane or…”

“Yeah? And what did you dream?”

Iwaizumi took a second to think, still hesitant about talking about it or not. Then he fixed the crumpled and yellowed pages of his book and let go. “I was on the top of something that looked like a volcano… and there was all this green vegetation around me. I’ve never seen that place before and it kinda appeared strange to me…” he swallowed. “and there was a guy…”

“A guy?” Haruka tilted her head to the side and for a brief instant their eyes met, blue mixing with green.

He shook his head. “Forget it – he closed the book – I probably just had a heavy meal last night…”

“Hajime…”

“Drop it dad, I ate yesterday!”

“It’s not about that…”

The older man pointed at the outside where a reddish fog seemed to slowly raise from the ground, moving towards the house like a poisonous cloud.

“Fuck! That’s no good.” Hajime swore, standing up from his chair, his father right on his heels and the two of them quickly barricaded the windows as if they were prepared for something like that.

“How much time left?”

“Twenty seconds. Help me barricade the door, come on!”

“Iwaizumi-san?” the little girl tugged at his shirt. “Is the red storm coming?”

The answer to the question was quick to came, when the walls began to shake. There was a small opening between the barred windows from where it was possible to see the cloud of smoke and sand making its way towards them, faster and faster, as if it had life of its own. It hit the rice field and the further ones already half destroyed; it hit other houses and theirs was no exception. They moved to the centre of the room, away from the walls, Hajime holding Haruka in his arms. He kept his eyes fixated on the door while the walls shook even more as if they were in the eye of a hurricane, the roof creaking unreassuringly.

They didn’t know how long it lasted, but they only felt safe again when the only sound that could be heard was Haruka’s muffled crying against Iwaizumi’s shoulder.

“Shh, It’s gone. You can watch now.” he murmured, finally breathing again.

  
  
  


Iwaizumi Hajime didn’t remember when was the last time he saw the blue of the sky or a sea that wasn’t an expanse of dirty water. He didn’t remember the last time he saw a supermarket full of food or breathed fresh air.

World population had been decimated. No place was safe anymore because the red storm, made of sand and smoke, did not spare anyone.

The Earth was dying. And when the human race finally realized it, it was already too late.

 

*****

 

Sibun was one of the few planets of the Trappist-1 system where life was possible, thanks to the small sun providing it energy. And because of this, its inhabitants lived in absolute peace, respecting climatic conditions, as if they could communicate to their planet and understand its potential problems.

Buildings on Sibun were mostly monotonous and minimalist, their almost blinding white color standing out against the planet’s grey ground and sea. The only constructions that differentiated from the others for greatness and majesty were the Pyramids, where the Scientists’ Council and the National Archive had their headquarters.

One of the Council’s member and also Chief of the Researches’ class, was Oikawa Tooru’s father himself. That night, right after his son reached and important goal, he had just got back from him last expedition with his daughter.

“To Tooru!” he said, sitting at the head of the table, raising his glass and tilting it toward his son. “Because he made us proud once again!”

“Don’t be so fast, dad! He’s not champion yet!” his older daughter pointed out.

Tooru grimaced. “That’s so funny, Hoshi, really funny… and here I wanted to make a toast for your and dad’s success.”

“Uh, it was nothing!” she replied, returning to her meal. “We didn’t even land, that planet’s temperature was the same as a furnace!”

“Did you choose a name?” Oikawa asked.

It was the Researchers’ job to travel from planet to planet, looking for the ones that were even remotely similar to Sibun. In their system there were already two planets called Knossos and Festus: those were mostly used as field for cultivations so that there still were free sections of untouched land.

Until then though the two planets were the only ones to be labeled as ‘inhabitable’; the others had been discovered one after the other and filed, because their structure was entirely incompatible to Sibun’s.

“I was thinking about Ignis, what do you think?” the older man asked.

“Hey, I think it’s perfect!” Oikawa said, directing a smile to his mother who had stood up and kissed him on the head. “I’ve read your report and I think it’s pretty fitting!”

“Great!” then he said to his wife. “Honey, why don’t you let Asimo take care of the dishes?”

“I want to do it myself for a change, without the help of the whole house, can I?” she said turning to her spouse, a hand on her hip.

Houses on Sibun were totally robotic. Asimo was the processor that coordinated everything, from hygiene to appliances, it also made doors appear whenever someone rang the automatic bell on the walls. It did anything, so that people could focus on other activities. After all, Sibun’s people were mostly concentrated on science or on activities which would benefit society. Because of it, races were the only form of recreation people could afford.

“You never change.” the man sighed before moving closer and kissing her neck. Their children pulled a disgusted face.

“Let’s go Tooru, before they go all lovey-dovey in front of us!”

The boy accepted his sister’s advice and, after pressing the button on the wall, the door materialized in front of them; they were greeted by a pretty hallway and a staircase leading to the second floor.

“Do you have trials tomorrow?” Hoshi asked once they got to their rooms and, pressing another button, a door appeared before her.

Oikawa nodded. “Simulations. I need to try all the possible tracks.”

There were only the bleachers inside of the Stadium, tracks changed every time and they were always different, always covered by a transparent plastic roof so that even in the event of an accident, pieces wouldn’t reach the public.

“Okay, try to sleep well…”

Oikawa blinked in confusion.

“Last night I heard you couldn’t stay still, what the heck were you dreaming?”

Tooru opened his mouth, as if he was about to give her an explanation, but then he closed it and shook his head. “I was just nervous about the race, don’t worry!”

Hoshi stared at him, not quite convinced, but then she decided not to investigate further and leave him be. She wished him goodnight and the both of them went to their respective rooms.

Oikawa was almost ready for bed when he was distracted by something on his desk.

The previous night, after his strange dream, he got up and went by the desk looking for a pen and a piece of paper. He stayed up until the morning, drawing the scenery he saw in his dream, worried he could forget it somehow.

He sat down, observing the drawings hung on the wall over the desk: he had drawn those when he was younger and already dreaming about being a pilot, bright colored starships glowing on the white paper.

They were the only colored things on Sibun.

He crossed his fingers, lowering his gaze to the drawing on the desk before his eyes.

He wondered if he was going to dream the same weird stranger once again.

 

**_Second Act_ **

  
  
  


_“You again?”_

_“Such a polite way to talk to a person, you know?”_

_“You are not a person, you’re just a figment of my imagination! Though I have no idea why would I create a weirdo like you…”_

_“Was it supposed to be an insult?”_

_“You think?”_

_“You’re such an unpleasant mental projection, you know?”_

_“So I’m the projection now?”_

_“Clear, I’m a real person.”_

_“So am I.”_

_“But I haven’t seen you anywhere…”_

_“Neither have I fuckface.”_

 

_*_

 

That morning, once he went to check their rice plantation’s condition, Hajime and his father decided to head to the city, looking for something to bring back home. They didn’t really hope for food. There were only a few surviving crops due the ‘plague’, a scourge fed by nitrogen and oxygen in the air, and as a consequence of the lacking of raw materials it wasn’t possible to make all the complex dishes, those you could find on a supermarket’s shelf, anymore. Animals barely lived more than two years, and even when they died, their meat was useless: most of the time it was poison to humans.

Every city in the world was almost empty, there were only a few who stubbornly persisted in living in grey, worthless buildings. The red storm had mainly hit the most densely populated metropolises, passing through the countryside every so often. It was like Earth suddenly had revolted and thrown its tired cries against those abusive buildings, which didn’t belong to it and were just slowly killing it.

To Hajime, Kagoshima town was exactly the same as Tokyo when he last saw it: desolated and with skeletons of iron rising from the ground, streets almost destroyed and people wandering all around like criminals.

His father parked on a rather remote street, hoping no one would steal their car since it was their only functioning transportation.

They walked by the streets, every now and then a child would scamper around and people would look down on them. Hajime preferred to not have anything to do with those kind of people, not because he was afraid or something, but because he still had a trace of integrity and humanity in him; those people had lost everything, even the last bit of human sense and acted like animals, or worse; they grabbed everything they could, they killed if necessary. Perhaps kids were still safe, but they were so weak that usually they didn’t even make it until their fifth year of life. Haruka was a special case, it wasn’t common to see kids her age.

They went inside what looked like a small supermarket, ran by a man and a woman, both stocky and with tattooed arms.

“What do you want?” the woman asked while her husband pulled out a pocket knife which she made him lower, for now at least.

“Planks. And some tools.” Hajime’s father replied, voice dry and without a hint of fear.

The woman thought about it for a moment before pointing her index finger to a shelf behind their backs, at the very back of the small room. There wasn’t much, just a few planks and some battered tools. They could always search somewhere else, but Kagoshima was big and they weren’t sure they could find anything better. They only took the essential.

“What can you offer?” the man spoke at some point, noticing the items on the dirty white counter.

Money was no longer of any use, maybe just for the richest people of the planet, but they had hidden who knows where or had died during a coup d’état plotted by poor people. After all, the world was falling to pieces and rich people seemed not to give a single damn about it.

Hajime showed the man a bag full of rice. They two turned their noses. “And how are we supposed to cook it?”

“Don’t play games with us, we know cooking gas still works!”

“Hajime!”

“Slow down, kid!” the man rose to his feet and his knife’s blade was a breath away from Hajime’s throat.

“Why, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna cut my throat? And what use would it be?”

“Stop it now, Hajime!” his father shoved him behind himself, standing in front of the bulky man. “We have some cured meat, too. It’s not much, but we’ve already eaten it and we’re still alive.”

The woman’s eyes went wide and she whispered something to her husband’s ear who spared a not-so-convinced look to the other two, before agreeing to the trade.

  
  
  


Iwaizumi was sitting in the car, waiting for his father to get back. Once they came out of the market – and after having a little quarrel – his father had told him he wanted to visit a friend of his who had been supplying them with the best items since the beginning, and it was partly thanks to said friend if they had been able to get by.

Hajime had decided not to go with his father and watch over the car instead, and so he found himself watching children playing with an improvised ball, while chewing on one of his broken nails. He didn’t know why, but he had dreamt of that guy, and that beautiful landscape, again and even in that moment he could still see images of their conversation, the guy’s annoying voice still echoing in his mind.

  


_“Rude! Do you always act like that?”_

_“Just with presumptuous people like you.”_

_“I’m not presumptuous!”_

_“Uh, you’re not? So you’re telling me your daddy isn’t rich?”_

_“What about you? You look like a peasant… or rather, a gorilla.”_

_“Say it again and I’ll knock the teeth out of your mouth.”_

 

They went on for what felt like hours. Then, just before the sun set in that strange world, the discovered each other’s names.

 

_“Nice to meet you, Iwa-chan, I’m Oikawa Tooru!” he offered his hand, which Hajime didn’t shake._

_“It’s Iwaizumi. Try keeping that in mind.”_

_“Iwa-chan is cuter!”_

_“I don’t care!”_

_“Iwa-chaaan~”_

_“IWAIZUMI!”_

 

He didn’t know why he acted like that, like he was fifteen again and not twenty-three. After all it was all in his head, the guy didn’t really exist as well as the strange world.

And still, it all seemed bloody real: everything had its order, from the rustling of water and leaves, to the sun dying out at the horizon and dragging him back to the real world. And that guy, with his attitude, didn’t seem like a projection or an hologram created by his own mind, rather like a normal person, someone you can meet by chance on the streets.

He already happened to dream all too realistically, but that was… on a whole another level. And as if it wasn’t enough, he had dreamt of the same place and the same person twice in a row.

He clicked his tongue while children’s cries increased and surpassed in volume those of another person.

Hajime noticed someone running in the distance, holding on two apples and it took him a while before realizing it was Haruka.

His eyes widened as he watched the little girl being pushed face-first to the ground by an older, taller kid, whose face was marked by who knows which disease.

Now, he had his hands wrapped around her neck.

Hajime got out of the car and ran towards them, anger clouding his mind and sight. He kicked the boy in the ear causing him to fall to the side, half dazed.

“Are you okay?” he asked Haruka a moment later, crouching to her level and she nodded, coughing a few times to draw in some air.

Then he heard the hiss of a bullet and his right cheekbone started to burn and sting, a little rivulet of warm blood dripping down his cheek. The boy from earlier, who looked like he was probably fourteen, was barely standing and his hands were holding a gun which, more than likely, he didn’t know how to use.

It wasn’t long before Iwaizumi had him pinned to the ground again, hitting him under his chin with his elbow and taking the gun away from him.

“Get lost!” he shouted and pointed the gun against the boy, who backed up before running for the hills.

“Iwaizumi-san…” he heard peeping and saw Haruka standing and insistently watching the graze on his cheekbone.

He grabbed her arm and shook her. He didn’t mean to be so rude with her, but panic had just blown up inside him and it could be heard in his voice too. “You promised you weren’t going to steal anymore!”

“I…” Haruka sniffed. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

She broke into tears while still apologizing through sobs.

Hajime hugged her tight. “Stop crying now…” and he couldn’t help but sigh in relief, after those words.

 

*****

 

_Meanwhile on Sibun…_

 

Oikawa woke up that morning with a smile on his lips. From the very first time, the guy in his dream had looked different from every other person Tooru had ever dreamt of. The guy seemed real, he seemed an actual, existing person.

 

_“Now that I think about it… You can’t dream of complete strangers… maybe I saw you walking on the streets.”_

_“I highly doubt it.”_

_“Well, we’re never gonna know that if you don’t tell me you name!”_

 

It took some persistence on Oikawa’s part, but the other finally gave up. And if Tooru’s theory proved to be true, then he did see the guy somewhere before, maybe they made eye contact, who knew.

And for that reason, once finished with the trials, he quickly headed to the Pyramids. The main street was in the center and on the left was situated the smaller Pyramid, which was nothing but Sibun’s Archive, where everything was stored, from information about newly discovered planets to newspaper articles. And, obviously, it also included a list of all the inhabitants of the planet, which was updated at every birth and death. He was sure to find all the information he was looking for about Iwa-chan. Of course, if he had ever happened to meet the other guy, Iwa-chan would have probably told him he hadn’t seen him once in his life, let alone dreamt of him. And yet, Oikawa felt like Iwa-chan would recognize him, somehow.

Dreams have nothing to do with science, they’re not based on certain evidences. There were people, though, who said it was possible to retrace back to the deepest part of an individual starting from a dream.

Oikawa was sure that some others on the planet would have considered him a psycho; but after all, he had always been different from other people who only thought about rationality. A bit of a dreamer, a bit unconventional, and that gave him quite the charming aura, too, because he wasn’t the average type of guy you’d meet on Sibun, or on any other planets of Trappist-1. Unlike his compatriots, he’d always believed in fate and destiny, two things that were taboos on his planet. He knew about those only because he had found them written in one of his mother’s old dictionaries.

Obviously, no one knew about this passionate nature of his to everyone it seemed almost like a façade, a way of acting to get the public’s attention.

He was in the huge room that contained the Catalogue of Inhabitants, two gigantic robotic arms which worked at many computers’ keypads, writing nonstop. The pretty girl of the info point escorted him herself, and once they were in, Oikawa followed her down a narrow hallway, heading to the main computer.

“You’re looking for a person, am I right?” Oikawa nodded and the girl went behind a stand, before addressing to the computer. “Hi Juno!”

The computer emitted a series of sounds, as to confirm it had heard, and the big screen showed the list of all names, and sometimes new ones appeared and others disappeared.

“Now you just need to say the name in the microphone and let her do the work!” the girl said, giving him space.

Tooru carefully articulated his words and once the computer received the name, a line began to quickly browse through the names, looking for the requested one. It stopped on the letter ‘I’, signaling an error in the searching process.

Oikawa started: no, he certainly wasn’t expecting that as an answer, but he couldn’t even doubt the validity of what the computer was saying, it was inspected monthly, so that everything could work perfectly and without glitches. He was sure about his idea, his mind couldn’t possibly have created that guy out of nowhere. He had great imagination, but just not that much; Iwa-chan had a lot of different sides, as many as only real, flesh-and-blood people had.

“Are you sure that’s the name?” the girl asked, hesitant. She wasn’t doubting Oikawa-san, far from it, who knows how many would have given everything to be in her shoes. She just wanted to do her work at her best.

The young man looked at the screen, his eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar, before shaking his head and giving her an embarrassed chuckle.

“Oops, they must have given me the wrong name! Sorry for wasting your time.”

She smiled, reassuring him before telling she was always available if he needed anything, blushing like a tomato in the process, but Oikawa only smiled like he did with every other girl.

It was in that moment that the girl’s expression faded and she pointed at his right cheekbone with a trembling finger. “Oikawa-san… you’re bleeding…”

He had actually felt a sting in the same spot, but he didn’t remember scratching it anywhere. He wiped himself off with the back of his hand, finding it stained with blood. He watched the red stain with dismay, wondering what the hell had just happened.

 

*****

 

_As per usual, the sun was going down and Iwa-chan was already beside him; that time, he was sitting with his leg swinging into the void. Oikawa went to sit, pushing him to the side, as if to make him lose his balance._

_“Are you nut?”_

_“You lied to me.” he said quietly, his face offended. “Spit it out, what’s your real name?”_

_“Please?”_

_“Today I went to the National Archive to find your name, but it wasn’t in there…”_

_Hajime grimaced. “What? Are you stalking me? And what the hell is the National Archive?”_

_Oikawa blinked. “Iwa-chan, are you serious? On which planet do you live?”_

_“Maybe you’re the alien!”_

_“The what?”_

_“Just drop it!”_

_The was a moment of silence, before Tooru let out a colorful exclamation, and Hajime shot him a sidelong look._

_“Of course! You’re from another planet!”_

_“What?”_

_«That’s why I couldn’t find you on the Catalogue!» he turned to face the other guy who had a shocked look on his features, while Oikawa looked down to him. “And now that I think of it, you’re different from any other person on Sibun…”_

_“Okay, that’s it…” Iwaizumi said to himself. “I’ve gone insane…”_

_The brunet leaned into him. “C’mon, tell me which planet you’re from! So I can suggest my father to visit your galaxy!”_

_Iwaizumi looked at him, every second more dismayed. Was this guy serious? Because it didn’t really felt like he was talking to a mature person, more like a five-years-old child instead. He rubbed his face, avoiding direct contact with those chocolate-brown eyes that were looking at him the same way a cat looks at his meal._

_“You know it…”_

_“If I did, I wouldn’t have asked.”_

_Hajime sighed. “Earth. Is it enough of a shocking news to you?”_

_His question was obviously rhetorical, he was expecting the guy to start blabbering about how beautiful the planet had been before, and he’d finally be convinced that it was all just a dream; a recurring and strange dream, but nothing more than a dream._

_But then, when he turned to Oikawa, he found him gasping and with his eyes confused. Suddenly, the sun went down and when Hajime opened his eyes, he was in his room, the sky outside still midnight blue._

 

**_Third Act_ **

  
  


The first time he had ever heard about Earth, he had just turned six. A woman, still wearing her robe, was being dragged by two men, two male nurses perhaps, and she was screaming. She screamed, and between her screams he had heard that word. He had asked his mother what was happening and then she had explained the woman suffered from the Astronaut’s Syndrome.

No one seemed to know what that word meant, and his mother’s dictionary lacked its first pages, so he wasn’t going to discover it anytime soon.

He only knew what it meant to Sibun’s people.

Rumors had it there were a few people able to contact Earth’s inhabitants to the point they could feel their physical pain. And that implied there was life on Earth.

Every single one who tried to convince people to visit the planet, was considered a victim of the Astronaut’s Syndrome.

There wasn’t life on Earth, that was what data reported about the planet. People loathed it, because many Sibun’s people had died while trying to explore it. That time only half of the crew had returned and from that moment on Earth had been considered the most hostile planet ever to exist.

No one actually knew _when_ the expedition had occurred. It was a legend for kids, but had anyone ever bothered to prove its veracity?

And yet it was strange, everything on Sibun had its own logic, there was nothing without its own explanation. So why, when someone asked more about that fateful expedition, no one knew how to answer? Was it even possible that no one cared?

A cold shiver ran down Oikawa’s spine, while he remembered how he had woken up panicked, soaked with sweat, in his pitch black room. He was scared. He didn’t want to go insane. And he damn well knew that people victims of the Astronaut’s Syndrome, sooner or later, just disappeared into thin air; the only things left about them being rumors spread by rumormongers.

He tightened his warm coat around his shoulders; He was out early that morning even though he didn’t have to train; he wasn’t going to go back to sleep in any case, and he was almost frightened by the thought of sleeping again, as if sleep wasn’t strictly essential for his body.

He was trying to erase Iwa-chan’s face frowning at him, most likely confused by his reaction, from his mind with all his might. If only he had the strength to take a pencil into his hands, he would maybe be able to draw him to the smallest detail: the tension in his forehead, his green eyes glistening with a different light under the sunrays, the cut on his right cheekbone…

Oikawa touched his face where he had injured himself the prior day, and he didn’t felt the slightest trace of the scratch or anything else. It had disappeared just a few hours later. And Iwa-chan had an injury in the same exact spot, and pretty obvious too.

There was something odd going on there, almost abnormal. Was it even possible for it to be all real?

Tooru wasn’t going to get it out of his head anytime soon, and for that reason he decided to head to the National Archive once again, in order to find more about the matter. He leaned on the counter, waiting for the same girl from yesterday to stop talking on the phone and notice his presence.

“Oh, good morning Oikawa-san!” she said then with a dazzling smile adorned with red lipstick. “Are you here to find that name again?”

“I’m here for something else, in fact…” he leaned into her slowly, his smile never faltering even if his hands were trembling. The girl, as he expected, turned bright red, and he took advantage of it flashing her a wink. “I’m here on a top-secret mission!”

The young girl let out an astonished exclamation: after all, it was well known Oikawa’s father was a great, renowned Researcher.

“Can you keep a secret?” he asked. She nodded. “Great, because I need all the information you have about Earth…”

It was then that the girl’s eyes widened, her pupils fixed into the brunet’s ones; she moved them a few seconds later to the play button of the phone, and the gesture itself was enough for Oikawa to figure out her intentions: before it was too late, he’d already grabbed the girl’s wrist.

“Oikawa-san… you’re hurting me…” she said, trying to pry her hand away, and Oikawa realized she was looking at him as if he was a misfit, an outcast, someone dangerous.

He reduced the strength of the hold, without letting her go either, and then he spoke quietly. “There’s no need to be afraid…” he said, swallowing thickly and barely breathing. The truth was, she should have been, even he was afraid of himself. “I don’t have the Astronaut’s Syndrome… quite the opposite, in fact, I’m looking for a cure to this disease, that’s why I need all the required information.”

“Really?” she exclaimed. “Do you want to be part of the Scientists’ Council?”

That was how it worked on Sibun: if someone wanted to become a member of the Scientists’ Council, they should already have worked to improve citizens’ lives, or they could show a new discovery, extraordinary enough to shock the entire audience, including normal people. Of course, everyone would benefit from the discovering of the cure for that Syndrome.

He gestured her to keep her voice quiet, but nodded right away. It was the only believable excuse he had to make sure they’d let him work alone and in peace, or he’d be seen as a suspect and brought who-knows-where. “You understand why I can’t tell this to anyone, right?”

She nodded, and he didn’t see any trace of terror in her eyes, so he let go of her wrist. It only took a few minutes before she was up and calling one of her coworkers to cover for her, then she escorted him to the least frequented place of the entire Archive: the Newspapers’ Catalogue.

  
  
  


The was a desk in that dusty room. The only available source of light came from an oval robot – it was robots’ traditional shape on Sibun – and Oikawa had to tap his fingers on the metallic structure a couple of times before it turned on. The girl explained that the robot had been there for ages and everyone ended up growing fond of it: it was an old piece, that was true, but its light was still good, it only needed to hit its stride before it could work properly.

“Okay BMO”, – she turned to the robot, stretching, and it looked like the robot was coming to life just by hearing someone’s voice calling his name – “let’s get going!”

Oikawa was brought only one file from the Researchers’ Catalogue, scarce and with meager information, all the rest was some newspaper clipping, showed by the computer under the voice of ‘The Astronaut’s Syndrome’: well, it was obvious.

The file didn’t contain much, it didn’t even look like the old information he was expecting. He already knew all of it, and instead of describing the real structure of the planet, if it was true there wasn’t any trace or chance of life, it only glorified the heroism of those Researchers who died in the attempt. There was not even a single photo of the crew, though. There was nothing but a list of names, and Oikawa decided to keep it to himself, just in case he had the chance to search for those names.

Ironically, he was able to get more information about the Syndrome itself, realizing several different people had been its victims. Not too many, considering Sibun’s population, but they were a quite a lot nonetheless. Symptoms were always the same: the conviction of being able to feel another person’s pain, strange dreams, the presentiment of having either some kind of disease or being hurt, without concrete proof, on and on until madness came along, when people yelled about life on Earth and saving the human race.

Oikawa touched his cheekbone, feeling a tingle on the back of his neck; that scratch couldn’t possibly be a fidget of his imagination, another person saw him bleeding. Even though, he was sure that if they ever caught him, the girl from the info point would pretend nothing happened.

He shivered, going back to reading, case after case, line after line, until one name caught his eyes. It wasn’t really a proper case, it was just about a young girl wrongly suspected of being a victim of the Syndrome. Her brother had denied everything and she had confirmed. Her surname was Ukai. And her brother was Ukai Ikkei, renowned racing pilot, five-times champion, now owner of Karasuno hangar.

  
  
  


Before bolting out of the Pyramid, Oikawa went to the Catalogue of Inhabitants, looking for the names on the list. He found out they were all dead and that, if he wanted to know more, he should have checked the Catalogue of Deceased, around the National Cemetery, just outside of the city.

He decided to visit it later, after talking with Ikkei-san. Despite Ikkei-san being the head of the hangar that was one of his arch enemies, Oikawa still respected him: for a long time, he was a legend in the racing world.

Moreover, although it might have looked suspicious, he was there for something different from races. He was there for Iwa-chan. He needed to know… he needed to know if he was going completely insane, if Iwa-chan really was from another planet, why was he dreaming of him.

He found Ikkei-san at the main Karasuno’s hangar, equipped with a track as they all were, watching the training going on right then. If he hadn’t had something else on his mind, he would have probably given up his free day to train as well. He made it inside avoiding security, and now he was in front of him, except for the fact Ikkei-san had his back turned. He was with his nephew, and judging by the numbers on the spaceships, those who were training had to be the little one and Kageyama.

“Ukai-san!” he shouted, after catching his breath, and both men turned to face him, surprised by his presence. “I need to talk to you!”

“How the hell did you get in?” Keishin marched towards him, as to make him go away.

Oikawa totally ignored him. “It’s about your sister.”

The older man’s shoulders gave a start, but he tried to hide it. “I’m not compelled to tell you anything, young man! Is this Irihata’s plan to distract us? Have we really reached this point?”

“Irihata-sensei has nothing to do with this, I’m here on my own free will!” he decided not to raise an argument about his Team Principal accused of being such a mean man.

Ikkei shot him a sidelong look. “Then there’s no point in you being here.”

Oikawa clenched his jaw, noticing the two younger pilots of Karasuno just finishing their usual lap and heading towards them. Hinata almost jumped back, protecting himself in a ninja looking position. “What are you doing here Oikawa-san?”

The brunet barely looked at them, focusing just a beat on Kageyama’s gaze, which turned from surprised to resolute. A few years prior, when they were just amateurs, they had been part of the same hangar, Kitigawa Daiichi, and Oikawa had always seen Kageyama Tobio as a potential threat. They also had an argument because of it, and from that moment on, all they wanted to do was destroy each other. But he didn’t have time for that right now.

“It’s urgent!”

“Are you deaf? You’ve been already told to leave!” the younger Ukai grabbed his arm, maybe an attempt to drag him out, despite Oikawa being taller and possibly heavier than him.

It was right there and then that Oikawa, knowing he wouldn’t be given another chance like that one, burst out. “I’ve been dreaming about an inhabitant of the Earth!”

The air froze all at once, the younger Ukai couldn’t keep hold of his arm. Everyone was looking at him like he had just spoke heresy, including Ikkei-san.

“The Astronaut’s Syndrome…” murmured Hinata, barely moving his lips.

“That’s enough…” Keishin had just grabbed his phone to call someone, but he was stopped by his grandfather, more serious than ever.

He held Tooru’s almost imploring gaze; there was no trace of fear in his eyes, no trace of resentment for what he had just said: he was one hundred percent convinced.

“We can’t talk here… My house in nearby.”

If possible, everyone looked at the old man with dismay, all except Oikawa, who nodded at him. “Great!”

  
  
  


“I’d love to know why are you two here too…” the brunet hissed through his teeth, moving his gaze to both Karasuno’s pilots, drinking their tea as if everything was normal.

Ukai-san’s house wasn’t any different from the other ones on Sibun, it was robotic as well and white as paper, except for the furniture that was a bit old-fashioned.

“Because we want to know if you’re crazy, too!” Hinata exclaimed, grabbing a bunch of cookies and fitting them in his mouth all at once.

Oikawa grunted. “I’m not crazy…”

“That’d be an advantage for you” Kageyama added, addressing to the red-head. “If Oikawa is declared insane, he’ll be forced to leave the competition, and you’ll take his place instead.”

“Wow, really?”

“I’ve already told you I’m not insane!”

“That’s for us to decide!” They noticed Keishin Ukai was back into the kitchen, followed by his grandfather, and both men sat down before them, next to each other.

For a moment, not a noise could be heard, air thick with tension, then Ukai senior spoke. “Describe your symptoms.”

“Grandpa, you don’t really believe him!” the old men shushed his nephew with a flick of his hand, and now all his attention was focused on Oikawa.

The guy took a deep breath, tucking his head into his shoulders a bit. “Nothing too strange, until now… I’ve just dreamt about this guy, Iwa-chan, more than once, and at first I thought he was a compatriot. My theory about him being an inhabitant of the Earth came next, maybe he was part of a species able to connect with us through dreams, on an subconscious level…” he was getting off the point, so he caught up with his previous subject. “I never thought he’d be from the Earth. Recently, I noticed he had an injury on his left cheekbone, and yesterday I suddenly started bleeding from the exact same spot… without any explanation.”

Ikkei nodded. “And where are you, usually, in your dreams?”

“We’re on the top of a mountain… or a crater, I haven’t understood it yet. And down the hillside there are a few little woods, there’s the sea expanding to the horizon and in the sky the sun is always setting. When the light disappears, I wake up in my room.”

“Do you recognize something from Sibun in this view?”

Oikawa seemed to think about it for a moment. “A little. Just something.”

“That’s because the landscape is the product of a union between Iwa-chan’s spirit and yours.”

Everyone in the room, without exceptions, went still with surprise at those words, spoken without the slightest hesitation. Keishin was positive his grandfather got two screw loose if he was going along with all that nonsense.

The old man leaned forward, elbows on knees, and there were only gravity and honesty in his voice. “According to what it’s known on Sibun, those who suffer from the Astronaut’s Syndrome are convinced they’re feeling another person’s pain, even if this person is light-years away from them, suffering from the same disease, hurting themselves in the same spot the other has an injury and communicating with the other by dreaming. And this person is always an inhabitant of the Earth.” He looked straight into the eyes of the young man sitting before him and eating out of his hand. He sighed. “Well… they are right. My sister was, at least.”

Hinata almost spat out his tea, while the others barely kept themselves sit on the chairs; only Tooru stayed still, unable to express any emotion, or attempt any movement.

“Wait, grandpa, you’re the one who cleared her name!”

“Or she’d have gone insane for real.” He replied. “Most of those who go completely insane, it’s not as a result of the Syndrome itself, but because they are marginalized by society, to the point they start to consider themselves insane too…”

He moved his gaze to the three young men sitting before him. “Oikawa, do you know the meaning of the word destiny?” when the brunet nodded, he continued. “My sister was sure she was destined to the guy she saw in her dreams, as if they were bound. She gathered information about the planet that no one else has, and all thanks to her dreams. Believe me, those were much too accurate even for the fervid fantasy of a child.” He stopped for a moment, catching his breath. “Astronauts are the same as Researchers on Earth. It was after my sister’s case that the name spread, because she was the first one to use the word. She wanted to go find him… but as you may have figured, they didn’t let her. She told me she felt him dying…”

Ukai took a deep breath, air full of unknown electricity. “Listen, Oikawa, I never doubted my sister’s words, not even once. She was a scientist, and had to pretend nothing was wrong in order to keep surviving and hoping that, one day, she’d be able to meet the guy again. I don’t know why you out of everyone else, are bound to this guy, but know this, there’s always a reason!”

“That is?” It was Kageyama who asked, even though he wasn’t really expecting an answer. But Ukai-san seemed to know the answer to everything.

“My sister told me the Earth was a prosperous planet, a long time ago, but that a lot of catastrophes were happening and too many people were dying from disease.” He never moved his eyes from Oikawa, whose pupils were narrowed as cracks, his hands sticky and covered in sweat. Why was he getting this bad feeling that whatever the old man was about to tell him, it was not going to be positive?

“Simply put, you’re telling us Earth was actually becoming hostile?” his nephew asked, now interested in the conversation more than ever.

The other man shrugged. “Not the way we imagine it to be, but yes… yes, this is the truth. I’m sure the Earth has reached among the lowest levels of habitability by now…”

So that was the reasons he was dreaming Iwa-chan? Because he was destined to feel him suffer, feel him _die_ , and do nothing about it? Was there really nothing he could do?

No, he was intended to something else, and _he_ had to, due to his nature, his behavior a bit outside of the norm.

There was something, but it meant giving up his good citizen role and act crazy. But it was his only chance, if he wanted to save Iwa-chan and thousands of other people, too.

“Ukai-san” he said, after minutes of endless silence. “Can I have your sister’s data?”

  
  
  


Kageyama and Hinata were sitting on the terrace’s cornice, on the roof of Kageyama’s family’s house. They barely talked to each other, once they got out of Ukai-san’s house, only to share money for the popsicles they were enjoying together. Even though Tobio’s one was just melting in his hand. He was still thinking about Oikawa-san, how he took the files in his hands, eyes lit up with a strange light, not his usual determination. Kageyama never thought determination could have different forms.

“What do you think is Oikawa-san going to do?” he asked then, without thinking about it, without realizing who was the person sitting next to him.

Hinata shrugged. “I have no idea… But I’m sure he’d do anything it takes to go to Earth.”

“So you believe in what Ukai told us?”

“Don’t you?”

“I don’t know…”

“I believe him!” he said, eating the last piece of his popsicle. “And I’d do the same, if I were Oikawa-san!”

Kageyama arched a brow. “Uh?”

“If I knew I’m destined to someone, and that they’re in danger, I’d do anything to save them, too.” He turned to face his mate and arch enemy since forever, tilting his head and smiling. “Wouldn’t you?”

Tobio felt a strange, warm sensation in his chest, heavy, threatening to crush his ribcage. It had happened for a long time, when he was with that stupid Hinata Shoyo. Just the idea of having a crush on that incompetent got on his nerves.

He averted his eyes, the top of his ears tomato-red, and replied, grumbling. “Maybe.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I still think you’re not real.” Oikawa almost jumped at that. “I still think you’re just a figment of my imagination.” He looked at him dead in the eyes. “I don’t need to be saved by anyone. If you really are an actual person, then you should be worrying about your future, not me."_   
>  _Those words hurt like acid corroding his tongue._   
>  _The night was descending on them, drawing violet and bluish lines on Oikawa’s face. He spoke with a whisper of voice, the corners of his eyes slowly dampening. “Yes. Maybe you’re right.”_

_You taught me the courage of stars, before you left_

_How light carries on endlessly, even after death_

_Chapter Two_

_~_

_First Act_

 

_A month later…_

His dreams got weirder and weirder. Oikawa did nothing but ask him about Earth, how it was before and how it was different now. He, for his part, asked him about his planet and they discovered that some of their words were unknown to the other.

Apparently they spoke perfect Japanese on Sibun, but there were a lot of inhabitants who spoke other languages. There wasn’t an explanation for that, though; at first Oikawa didn’t pay attention to the fact they were able to communicate despite being from two different planets, after all he had believed Iwa-chan was one of Sibun’s inhabitants.

They found out the expanse of water in front of them wasn’t the sea, but a lake, blue as no one ever saw one on Sibun: water looked grey there. And they didn’t even have volcanoes, even though Iwaizumi kept on saying there was one behind them, their backs to its mouth.

They talked about themselves, about their lives and what they usually did during the day, and Hajime felt really a human. Talking to Oikawa made him feel human, because when he woke up he had to take care of the field, his father and Haruka, and most importantly he had to survive. Tooru was able to make him feel normal, an ordinary twenty-three-years-old guy with his life still all ahead of him.

Iwaizumi Hajime found himself hoping again. But the doubt of it being all a dream kept stirring at the back of his mind.

 

 

 

_This time, sun’s rays went from orange to a faint red. Oikawa told him it reminded him of his sun; they called it Trappist-1, and its rays were far less intense._

_It was true. The Solar System’s star emitted sunrays that burned on bare skin, now more than ever._

_He was sitting on the edge of the crater, heels hitting the rock walls, and Oikawa was already by his side._

_He was smiling, as he always did. “Hi Iwa-chan!”_

_“Shittykawa” he said, using the nickname he gave him, and the brunet grimaced, offended._

_“Can you please call me something else, uh, Iwa-chan?”_

_“I’ve already told you I’ll stop calling you that when you stop distorting my name.”_

_The brunet opened his mouth, closing it just a second later and snorted._

_“So, how’re your trials going?” he asked then._

_A grin appeared on Oikawa’s face. “Let’s put it this way: next week I’ll be ready to become champion.”_

_Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. “Sure…”_

_“How are you?”_

_Hajime shifted his gaze on him, and his previous grin faded away, replaced by a worried look. “I’m fine, Oikawa, there’s no need for you to worry…”_

_“You know I feel it, Iwa-chan…”_

_Tooru had confessed him he could feel his pain, and that something like this was considered a disease on his planet. They called it the Astronaut’s Syndrome. If they found out he was afflicted with it, they’d probably have him locked away somewhere and the two of them would have stopped dreaming of each other._

_“Yeah, I know!” he snapped. He wasn’t sure it was also the other way around. Until then, Oikawa never hurt himself and Hajime didn’t feel anything irregular about his body. Anything more irregular than the usual, that is…_

_“Hajime…” he felt all of his nerves coming to life. Oikawa had just called him by his first name. He had never heard him say it for the whole time they knew each other._

_“I have to tell you something… It’s about that project of mine…”_

_He had been talking about it for some time now, arousing his curiosity like a mischievous kid. Now, though, he didn’t look like a kid: he looked like a young man ready to have a serious conversation._

_Iwaizumi nodded, as to show he was listening, and Oikawa took a deep breath before speaking. “I’m building a spaceship.”_

_The other one arched his eyebrow, skeptical. “I’ve just been enhancing a Passengers’ Ship. We use them to move from Sibun to the other two planets where we keep our cultivations and greenhouses. I’ve told you about that…”_

_“Okay, can I ask you what use would it be to you? Is it about the competition?”_

_“No. It’s about you.”_

_Hajime’s eyes widened. Now he understood, now all made sense: Oikawa hadn’t been asking him those kind of question about his planet just out of his own curiosity. He wanted to…_

_“No” he said, rising to his feet. “That’s out of the question!”_

_“Iwa-chan, I just have to add a few final things, then I’ll be able to come and save…”_

_“Who, Oikawa, save who?” the other guy shouted. “Me? My father? Haruka?”_

_“Do you think I’ll leave them on your planet, even knowing they’re going to die?”_

_“That’s the whole point, Tooru.” He called him by his first name, too. For the first time. “They don’t need any false hope…”_

_“Iwa-chan, I_ can _come and get you all!” Oikawa had stood up, too, and now he was screaming against Iwaizumi, desperate._

_“No, Oikawa, you can’t!” his voice faded away. “You can’t…”_

_Silence settled between them for a short moment, Oikawa carefully moving towards him, with the intention of taking his face in his hands and be able to look him in the eyes. He didn’t succeed, Iwaizumi spoke just an instant later._

_“I still think you’re not real.” Oikawa almost jumped at that. “I still think you’re just a figment of my imagination.” He looked at him dead in the eyes. “I don’t need to be saved by anyone. If you really are an actual person, then you should be worrying about your future, not me.”_

_Those words hurt like acid corroding his tongue._

_The night was descending on them, drawing violet and bluish lines on Oikawa’s face. He spoke with a whisper of voice, the corners of his eyes slowly dampening. “Yes. Maybe you’re right.”_

 

 

 

The following morning Hajime woke up tired. He felt exhausted, weak, limp; even stretching his arms was too much of an effort for him. He spent the rest of the day trying not to think about Oikawa, about what he told him, about his pained expression, the last thing he saw before sinking back again into his cold, hard reality. There had been another storm than morning at the crack of dawn.

They were frequent even in the countryside now, too.

Earth couldn’t take it anymore, it wanted to end it all. Hajime couldn’t blame it.

It wanted to be its own past self, but knew that was impossible, that it couldn’t go back in time. Twenty-first-century men had destroyed the planet, doing whatever they wanted to it, without thinking about consequences, without thinking about the repercussions there would have been one century later.

There was a part of him who wanted to trust Oikawa, trust he’d really be able to do it, because even if he had known him for just a month, he would have trusted him with his life; and there was his more rational part, the one that had seen too much evilness in the world, the one that was born the moment his mother died, when he was just as old as Haruka. And that one was telling him Oikawa was only the figment of his futureless hopes.

Once he was done with working hard down in the rice field, Hajime spent the rest of his day home, helping his father with little jobs now and then, in attempt to fix any of their appliances, but nothing really big. Haruka came to visit him in the afternoon.

“Hi everyone!” the little girl exclaimed all happy.

“Hi Haruka!” Hajime’s father was the first one to speak. “How are you? No more flu?”

She had been sick lately, and they didn’t see her around much. It had been her mother, ex-nurse just like Mrs. Iwaizumi, who kept them updated about her conditions.

Haruka nodded, smiling.

“What have you got in that sack?” Hajime said then, noticing the shopping bag she carried in her hands.

The kid moved closer to the table and sat comfortably on a chair, then she pulled out a bag of cookie which looked untouched. “Surprise!”

“My child, where did you get it?” Mr. Iwaizumi asked, astonished, sitting down just before his son.

“I found it!” Hajime arched his eyebrow at her. “I swear, Iwaizumi-san, I’ve never stolen anything again since that last time!”

Haruka put her hand together, as to evoke some sort of spell, hoping Iwaizumi-san would have believed her. Eventually, he caressed her head the way he always did and smiled softly. He opened the package, and he was the first one to try if the cookies were edible: who knew which age they could come from.

“They’re good, dig in!” he said once he swallowed his first bite.

The three of them kept talking around for a while, before Hajime’s father decided it was time for him to get back to his washing machine, leaving the other two to their chatter.

“Are you okay, Iwaizumi-san?” Haruka uttered at some point, grabbing another cookie.

He felt a tingling sensation behind his back, Oikawa’s worried voice echoing inside his brain, as guilt made his heart race like a mad horse. No, he wasn’t okay, at all. Maybe he looked like it, but he was rotting inside as the Earth’s core. And if that crazy Oikawa had been telling the truth, then he was feeling it too.

He too was feeling exhausted, he too was struggling to breathe, he too felt the bitter taste of blood in his mouth.

“Yes…” he answered, perfectly aware it was a lie. “I’m just tired…”

“Why? Did you not sleep well?” when awareness fully hit Haruka, she slammed her pale, delicate hands on the table, standing upon the chair. “Has something happened to Oikawa?” she asked in distress.

Hajime had told her about his dreams, but he would have never imagined her to believe it, let alone take Oikawa that much to heart.

It was too damn ridiculous even for a ten-years-old child!

Not for Haruka, though. She really believed in Sibun’s existence, populated by a race which was similar – if not nearly identical – to the human one.

He rubbed his eyes with his hand: he didn’t want to upset her, but he didn’t feel like lying to her again. “We had a fight.”

“What…? And why?” Haruka looked like she was this close to crying.

He sighed. “Because he wants to come to Earth and bring us back to Sibun.”

There was a moment of silence, just enough time for his words to be swallowed by the afternoon breeze, then Haruka jumped on her chair, almost falling over. “Iwaizumi-san, this is wonderful! We have to tell the others!”

Hajime shook his head. Tell the others…?

“Wait, Haruka, I don’t think you understand…”

“One of my friends can help, he’s amazing with computers and his father works at the nearest Space Station. We can spread the news on… hum… what are they called? _Social something_. There have to be some ones still running, aren’t there?”

To be fair, perhaps the only ones who still used them were the riches, mostly out of habit than for the real sake of it.

“Haruka, he’s not coming!”

The little girl’s blue eyes faltered. “Why not? He said…”

“I told him not to come.”

He blurt that out all at once, and the kid didn’t seem to understand, or maybe she thought she had misheard. However, Hajime didn’t lower his gaze, not even when she got mad at him.

“Why did you do that? You’re so mean, Iwaizumi-san!”

“Haruka, he’d die in a place like this! He’s always lived in peace, why does he have to risk it all for… what? Three roughnecks without any reason to live?” That was his real point. Not that he kept on saying it was all unreal, and not that it was all a fantasy either. With Oikawa he felt in touch with reality, he felt the real essence of things and how it all should have been, everything in its own place. But it was also true that not only the young pilot lived on planet light-years away from them, but it was a rich planet, too. Tooru had his life there, his future, his everything; risking it all for _Iwazumi’s_ life was just a selfish act towards the people in his own life. Or maybe Iwaizumi himself was the selfish one, instead.

He wasn’t sure Haruka had understood his words, but he kept going on and on, observing the table’s wooden surface. “I’d never let him sacrifice his life for me…” he said in a quiet whisper.

Not hearing any answer from Haruka, he lifted his eyes only to find her sitting again with her face low, chin pressed to her sternum.

Hajime furrowed his brow and called her, but the answer still didn’t came. He stood up and went around the table, crouching to her level.

“Haruka…?” he said, touching her arm to try and shake her. “It’s not a good time to play around.”

But he wasn’t expecting her weak body to fell limp into his arms, like a rag doll. It looked like she had stopped breathing.

“Haruka? Haruka!” he called, gently shaking her, but she wasn’t replying.

Hajime let out a swear and called his father in desperation, still pressing the little girl to his chest.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

_Two weeks later…_

 

 

 

He was leaning against the wall, waiting for his turn to enter the room. His and Haruka’s fathers were talking downstairs.

The house wasn’t too different from theirs, it was a simple country house and in the middle of a wide field. His and Haruka’s mothers had bought both of them just before the end of the world had begun. Luckily, he dared to say.

He looked outside the window, the field in front of him was almost completely destroyed by the plague: the only things Haruka and her family could rely on were their way too old hen and food she and her father brought home. Hajime squeezed his eyes shut, because just the thought of Haruka having to steal and provide for her family’s wellbeing was driving him mad. She should have had fun and gone to school, done things every ten-year-old child should do. She carried on her shoulder a burden that was way too heavy, too many responsibilities for her age, and maybe it was why she had got sick. And now she was inside of her room and she was about to breath her last.

The door opened and Hajime saw Haruka’s mother leaving the room in tears, her hair and face a mess. She barely spared a glance for him, then she attempted a smile, encouraging him to enter. He bowed his head, closing the door behind his back. He gripped the handle between his fingers before letting go, heading with slow, heavy steps towards the little girl’s bed, her body hidden by the blankets.

Her small eyes cracked open and when she saw him she gave a little smile. “Iwaizumi-san…” she whispered, coughing a little.

He tried to mirror her smile. “Don’t strain yourself, Haruka.”

“Iwaizumi-san, did you meet Oikawa last night…?”

Hajime’s shoulders shuddered, but he pretended nothing was wrong and fixed her fringe, so that he could see eyes better. “Yeah… and he says hi.”

As much as he didn’t like to lie to Haruka, it wasn’t the right moment to tell her she hadn’t dreamt of Oikawa for two weeks straight; since she got sick, nightmares had assailed him every night, memories of his mother when she was sick as well. But anyway, Oikawa would have done something like that, he knew how much of a fan of his Haruka was.

He found himself longing to see him. He felt the compelling desire to tell him everything that was happening, in that exact moment.

Haruka smiled at him, coughing again before speaking. “Can I ask you something…?” Iwaizumi nodded. “Can you hug me from behind, please?”

He nodded a second time, it didn’t take long for him to get under the blankets, carefully moving Haruka to the side and leaning her onto his chest. “Like this?” he asked, encompassing her with one arm.

“Yes.” She pressed her face into his t-shirt, her fingers grabbing the cloth. “Iwaizumi-san, you love me, right?”

The lump in his throat, for a brief moment, didn’t let him answer. That little girl had been his world for half of his life. “Of course.”

“Can I ask you to keep a promise?”

“Which one?”

“Promise me you’ll go with Oikawa even if I won’t… and you’ll tell him I’m so sorry…” Her blue eyes met Hajime’s green, watery ones, and he couldn’t do anything but nod.

The little girl smiled, barely showing her teeth, and her small fingers went to squeeze Iwaizumi’s free hand. They stayed like that for a while, before she said, as if she was falling asleep. “Iwaizumi-san, you’re warm…”

Then, silence. Not a breath, not a word. Hajime didn’t have the courage, and Haruka…

“Haruka?” he called as he felt her grasp getting weaker and weaker, if not disappearing. “Haruka…”

He didn’t need further confirmation. He opened his lips slightly against her hair, shutting his eyes and letting two single tears run down his cheeks.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

_The next day…_

His father gave him a black suit jacket, but under that he was still wearing the same clothes as ever. Haruka had been buried at the bottom of a luxuriant tree, maybe one of the few left that were healthy and untouched by the plague. After the improvised ceremony, not that it had anything religious about it, Hajime had stayed, watching the desolating view all around him. It was windy, but nothing that might foretell a storm.

Haruka’s last words hammered inside of his head, piercing his flesh and skull. She wanted to go, to see a new, unknown place with her very eyes, to breath fresh air… but she had died on the Earth.

Haruka had believed, and yet _he_ was alive. It would have been better if he had died…

He coughed and then looked at the palm of his hand: blood-red. “Shit!” he muttered between his teeth.

He wondered if it was happening to Oikawa too, whatever he was doing. He made his blood-stained hand into a fist, and for a brief moment he wasn’t on that arid, dead field, but in his dreams, in the strange world product of the union of his and Oikawa’s memories. The young man was beside him and he was smiling. Yes, if Haruka had had the possibility to meet him, she would have adored him. They had the same smile.

He headed for her parent’s house, and he had to walk for a while before getting there, hands buried in his pockets. He forced himself to cough as little as possible, he did that only when had to. When he reached his destination, people didn’t notice his presence. He wasn’t expecting that many people to be there, but after all, Haruka was known for her over-friendly and extroverted nature.

He kept looking around, until his eyes landed on a boy, the youngest among the group, impeccably dressed.

He looked almost out of place. He was with a man, maybe his father, dressed to the nines as well.

He suddenly remembered the conversation he and Haruka had before she got sick. She had told him about a friend of her whose father worked for the Jaxa.

That little girl had always had a big heart, her intention was to inform as many people as possible in order to save them. Hajime didn’t know if he’d been able to do something like that, but he could try. It was almost like a second promise to him.

Haruka had told him to live. And he was going to do just that.

As soon as the boy was alone, he headed towards him to talk. “Were you friends with Haruka?”

The other nodded, intimidated by Iwaizumi’s harsh figure. “Does your father work for the nearest Space Station?” another nod. “Then you owe Haruka and me a favor…”

 

 

 

_Second Act_

 

 

 

He coughed again, looking down at the palm of his hand: it was stained with blood, as usual. He swallowed, and felt the bitter tinge of his own saliva at the back of his throat, hastily wiping his hand. He had gotten worse in the last two weeks. His sister had even noticed, but doctors said there was nothing wrong with him.

Of course, he was not the one being sick. Iwa-chan was.

Oikawa took a deep breath, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs. He was in the pilots’ room, every hangar had one, while waiting for the race to start.

He couldn’t think about Iwa-chan, not in his big day. He had to think about his life. That was what Iwa-chan wanted, after all.

There was a knock on the door and it wasn’t long before Hoshi showed up on the doorway. “Are you ready?” she asked.

He tried to grin as he always did, despite the ache he kept feeling inside. And it wasn’t just physical pain. “I was born ready!”

His sister mirrored his smile, and the both of them left the waiting room, moving from one hallway to the other. When they arrived to the hangar, where the whole team was already waiting for him, everyone welcomed him with screams, whistles and a few pats on the back. Irihata-sensei gave him some last directives, then added one last scrap  of advice with the paternal attitude that came out in those situations. “Be careful…”

Oikawa nodded, putting on his helmet and taking his place inside of the starship. “Okay, baby, let’s get everyone to go wild today!” he said, turning on the controls.

He waited for the gate to open, engines already roaring, then the starship whooshed out and high, leaving a spiral of smoke in its wake. He did a few twirls, and it was the moment Oikawa could finally turn his mind off and stop thinking. Stop thinking about Iwa-chan. People on the bleachers looked tiny, but he was able to spot the banner made by his fan club. He wondered, just for a moment, if Haruka-chan would have liked to be part of it.

He focused on the track, taking a quick look: it was one of the hardest, with several hairpin curves, but he didn’t let himself be scared by it. He also noticed that his rivals had gotten out of their hangars and were checking that everything was alright. After a five minute fly test, a small opening, big enough for the starships to fit in, appeared on the transparent calotte, and the racers took place on the starting line according to their ranking in the previous race.

Oikawa tightened his grip on the wheel, swallowing the bitter lump in his throat: he could still taste blood.

No, he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. He had worked hard for his entire life to be here, and his lifetime rivals  were right beside him, against him, and they were going to make him bite the dust. He couldn’t waste all the sacrifices he had made for years, and all for a dumb, insipid terrestrial. He couldn’t waste his life for Iwa-chan. He couldn’t…

He was pulled out from his thoughts by the countdown, and just a second later he was already speeding on the track.

The race was dominated by twists and turns, Karasuno’s and Aoba Johsai’s starships kept trying to surpass Shiratorizawa’s unbeatable one, but the best – as usual – was saved for the grand finale. The last, decisive lap.

People almost jumped to their feet when Oikawa, with a skillful move, was able to surpass Ushijima, their starships hitting one another, and he could hear his entire hangar celebrating with him through the radio like they never had before. There was only the last section of the track left, and he could already sense the sweet sound of the word champion followed by his own name. Half an hour later, he could already see the finish line, he just needed to pass the last curve and then he would have officially won.

He skillfully turned his vehicle, like he only knew how, and he swore he could sense people’s amazement even from inside the starship. It was when he moved it back in the right position that he realized something was wrong. The alert sign went off all of a sudden, as if something had happened to the processor, and Oikawa didn’t have control on the vehicle anymore.

He couldn’t even talk to his team, he was in a panic, hands shaking. Nothing like that had ever happened to him, even though he knew it was an  occupational hazard.

In a flash, his starship went crushing to the ground, just a few meters away from the finish line.

His ears were ringing, or maybe it was just the sound of the other starships crossing the line. Then he wasn’t able to recognize any other sound or see anything, if not blood-red stains. The same as the ones he had on his palm that morning. The same Iwa-chan saw everyday…

“I can’t pass out…” he forced himself, a whisper through his lips, dry as withered leaves, but his eyelids were about to close on their own. “I can’t pass out… I can’t…”

The only thing he was able to discern were figures helping him out of his starship. Then, one last word left his lips. “Hajime…”                                                                                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

_Half an hour before…_

That morning, Iwaizumi had gone to Kagoshima Space Station with Haruka’s friend, Jun, whose father was a renown aerospace engineer.

Jaxa’s Space Stations, as well as Nasa’s, weren’t really useful anymore. There only were people who worked on different projects, trying to save humanity.

Long time ago, he would have said they were just a bunch of delusional, people who didn’t want to face the evidence. But he had just buried his dearest friend – no, his little sister, to be even more exact – and she believed in kindness and in the chance of a rescue. Now, he’d be counting to ten before offending anyone out of turn.

They had entered easily: the boy had given him a pass, and everyone inside knew Jun apparently. There still was a starship prototype exhibited outside and forgotten there, and Hajime couldn’t help but notice the presence of several men inside the area, some dressed in white coats and some not.

They moved from one hallway to the other, but it all looked the same, all full of people who still believed in Science, Physics, Math and in all the resources these three disciplines together could held.

Jun leaded him into a computer room, some of which were pretty outdated and inoperative. Jun told him not to worry, that he was used to sneaking into the room and hacking nasty rich people’s computers. Hajime knew that was quite the illegal thing to do, but then again justice had fucked off the moment Haruka died, so it didn’t matter anymore. He had told Jun his intentions, and at first the boy had thought he was insane, but then, when he told him it was their friend’s last request, Jun found himself wavering.

Eventually he agreed, but not without Hajime having to force his hand a little bit.

They spent two full hours trying to hack all that was left of social networks: the only ones were Facebook and Twitter, and it wasn’t hard to get in and spread the news of a starship coming from another planet. That was what Haruka wanted: for people to be safe.

His only choice left was to hope he’d be able to see Oikawa that night so as to start everything and give him coordinates to Kagoshima’s station. And, maybe, apologize to him…

“Are you sure that’s what Haruka wanted?” Jun asked, satisfied with having been able to handle the – rather mediocre by now – control systems of those two internet pillars, but still skeptical.

Jun wasn’t a bad guy, he did what he could in order to survive and break the old monotony. And because of that, hacking the digital world was fun to him. It wasn’t his fault, he was only seventeen. Hajime didn’t have anything in mind for the future when he was the same age. No one should become like an empty shell only waiting for death.

He nodded, determined as ever, and the boy shrugged, admiring his work one last time. It was then that someone broke into the room.

“Jun!”

The both of them turned around, looking like two thieves caught in the act, Jun still sitting on the swivel chair. Hajime recognized the man right away: he was Jun’s father, dressed in a white coat as well, the pass hung down his neck. “I’d already told you more than once to stop hacking!”

“But I…”

“No excuses!” and while still saying that, he started to drag his son outside the room by the ear. “This is the last time!”

The man hadn’t even noticed Hajime’s presence, and he stayed there for a breath, watching the scene, astonished. He understood what was happening only when he saw the man dragging his son through the hallway. “Wait a moment!”

The man turned around, still holding his son’s ear. “And who the hell are you?”

“Iwaizumi Hajime, sir.”

“He’s one of Haruka’s friends, dad.” the boy added, squirming in pain.

“It was me who asked Jun to help me hack the web, he’s not part of it…”

The man dropped his hold, outraged and angrier than before. “What a good guy, such a role model! Do I have to expect you to ask my son to kill a man next time?”

“I didn’t mean it…” Hajime wanted to reply to that stupid question, but he suddenly felt weaker, his head spinning and his vision clouding.

“Great, now get out of here, before I call the security…!”

And after that, he didn’t hear anything else, despite being so close to both father and son. He felt like he was underwater and drowning, he wasn’t even able to hear his own voice. He could not move, not even when the man started to yell at him again, probably ordering him to go.

He was just able to hear Jun’s worried voice, and see the terrified look on their faces. “Iwaizumi-san… what’s happening to you?”

“Oh my god…”

Something thick and warm started dripping down his forehead, and Hajime touched his head on the left side to see what could it be. And then he understood why those two were watching him as if he was under some sort of spell.

He was bleeding. He had started bleeding for no apparent reason.

“Oikawa…” he suddenly whispered.

Something had happened to him. Something serious.

He didn’t have the time to worry about that, because he passed out just a few moments later.

 

 

 

_His eyes started open. The room around him was empty, walls and floor painted black. He could barely see his reflection on the translucent surface._

_He didn’t recognize this place and it sure wasn’t one of the scenes from his recent nightmares. His cheek was pressed to the ground and he couldn’t move, everything hurt. Why was everything hurting? Why did his limbs feel like granite?_

_“Where am I…?” he wondered, trying to turn around when a sudden pain streaked through him, tearing a scream from his lips._

_He tried again and again, biting his lower lip to stop himself from screaming, and then he was on his stomach, finally able to see his surroundings. He saw a body, lying on the floor several meters away from him._

_Then he noticed two thing, or better, two colors standing out against the blackness of the room: the first color he noticed was the red of the puddle of blood all around the body’s head, dripping on its forehead; the second color he noticed was the light-brown of the guy’s eyes. And there was only one person, to Hajime, who had chocolate-brown eyes._

_“Oikawa…”_

_The young man’s eyes looked glassy, empty, and they were wide open. Iwaizumi already knew that feeling, it was the feeling of a life about to slip away, of a body losing its warmth. And he felt it in Haruka’s fingers holding his own._

_“Fuck, no.” he swore, crawling, desperately trying to reach him, but every move gave him stabbing pains like lances plunging into his flesh._

_“Oikawa, you better wake up!” he yelled, still distant, while he kept moving. “I swear if you die, I’ll personally chase you down in the afterlife and I’ll kick your ass!”_

_No answers, no movements. He felt the young pilot’s life slowly slipping away from him._

_No. Not again._

_“Tooru, I can’t lose you too!” he yelled again, still with an awful feeling at the pit of his stomach. “Tooru!”_

_He was about to give up, for real this time, when he saw Oikawa’s eyelids move. He blinked twice, as if he was just playing around and it was all pretence, a wicked game. Oikawa shifted his head slightly, lifting it up so he could see him._

_“Iwa-chan” he murmured, and the other guy let a smile crack his lips open._

_*_

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes were moving spots, all of different colors. One he identified as a face was leaning towards him, then he heard a muffled crying voice.

His eyesight took a while to go back to normal, when the nurses started to examine him, pointing a sharp light at his eyes. Then, he recognized his family: his mother and his sister were in tears, behind their backs, his father was smiling at him.

He was in a hospital. They took him to the hospital after the accident. They were talking to him, but Oikawa couldn’t say anything, he still felt too dazed. His head felt heavy and his limbs weren’t responding to his will.

Why couldn’t he move?

He only spoke once his parents were escorted out by a nurse and he was left alone with his sister. “Hoshi…”

“Welcome back!” she said, sniffing up with her nose and letting out a nervous laugh.

“What happened…?” he muttered. His mouth was filled with saliva. All he could do was turning his head around, but not without piercing pains.

“You had an accident. They had to give you the Serum.”

“The Serum…” it took him a while to completely grasp what his sister had just told him, then his eyes went blown wide. “So I’m…”

“No, Oikawa, relax!” she said, putting her hand on his cheek. “You’re at risk, but doctors are confident!”

The Serum was a stimulant created exactly for cases of sudden paralysis due to unfortunate accidents like his. It was injected into the paralyzed part, to  stimulate nerve impulses. If the therapy was successful, then the patient would have excellent chances of moving again. In his case, he had hit his vertebral column, so doctor had to inject the Serum in his lumbar region.

“If they hadn’t been quick to get you out of there, you wouldn’t even be here…”

About that, Oikawa wasn’t so sure. Suddenly, Iwa-chan’s figure crawling towards him, a relieved smile on his face, came to his mind. His heart missed a few beats.

He had heard his voice, he had heard him calling his name. Iwa-chan said he needed him.

Iwa-chan… hadn’t forget about him.

He made a frustrated sound, caused by pain. “Who got me out…?”

“Your opponents.” Oikawa stared at her, astonished. “They realized you had an accident only after they crossed the finish line. If I didn’t see it with my two eyes, I would never believe it. As he braked, Kageyama even destroyed his starship. They immediately ran to yours and forced it open.”

“I guess I’ll have to thank them then…” He rolled his eyes. “Who won?”

“Your kohai.” Hoshi said, crossing her arms.

“Fuck…”

“You feel bad because you were beaten by your pupil?”

“He’s not my pupil!” He uttered and felt pain at the back of his neck. “And anyway, it’s not just about that…”

“Then what?”

“I didn’t see Ushijima’s face as he was defeated.”

There was a moment of silence, then his sister broke into laughs, and just seeing her happy again made him smile. “You’re always the same!”

He kept smiling, resting his head on the pillow, and felt the compelling need to close his eyes.

“I’ll let you sleep…” Hoshi said and then she left the room.

Oikawa took a deep, husky breath, muscles still numb.

There was a part of him, the one dominated by pride, that felt defeated for missing such an important chance, but there was another part eager to see Iwa-chan and forget about everything else.

It was only thanks to Iwa-chan that he was alive, there wasn’t another explanation.

His eyelids felt heavy, but he only fell asleep when the room went dark and the Serum started to kick in.

 

 

 

Hajime woke up while his father and Jun were carrying him to his room . He nearly made the both of them lose their balance, his body suddenly jerking awake, as if he had woke up from a nightmare. Not that what he had seen was any different, but at least now he knew for sure Oikawa was still alive.

He felt it. For whatever strange reason, he felt Oikawa was still alive.

His father looked so relieved to see him awake and they covered the last steps with as much caution as possible, without moving him too much.

The little movements made by the two gave him piercing pains through all of his body. They set him down on his bed, asking if he was feeling better, and he thought they were kidding: he was obviously not better at all.

Jun came with Haruka’s mother a few minutes later, she was the only one with any level of expertise in the medical field. Despite that, though, the woman wasn’t able to tell what happened to him. His bleeding side was intact, there were no cuts or bruises; she couldn’t explain his sudden paralysis, since he looked fine. Hajime hoped with all his being that she wouldn’t notice the symptoms of his real illness, the one that he truly had, but luckily she didn’t say anything. Maybe she had a hunch, but she decided it wasn’t the right time to talk about that, and that it had nothing to do with his paralysis.

The only explanation left was that something had happened to Oikawa, but they couldn’t know, of course.

Oikawa had told him pain disappeared when a person feel the other die, so if he really had died, then Hajime wouldn’t have been stuck in bed.

Haruka’s mother was reassuring his father, telling him to wait and see how it would go, talking as if Hajime was in a coma and couldn’t understand what they were saying: yeah, well, sure it was comforting to be treated as terminal!

Jun and his father left some time later, the man still apologizing for his rude manners, and Iwaizumi had told him he didn’t have any hard feelings, it was okay. The man saw him bleed and pass out right before his eyes, of course he was shocked.

Hajime sighed, his room entirely swallowed by the darkness except for the pocket flashlight his father left pointing at the roof as if it was a table lamp. He tried to look outside – his neck was the only thing he could actually move – catching a glimpse of huge clouds covering the starry sky. He almost smashed his head against the pillow, letting out a frustrated breath.

It was all Oikawa’s fault if he was like this. And while he wondered what the hell could have happened to him, his eyes closed on their own and his breath became heavier.

 

 

 

_They weren’t near the volcano crater, this time they were laying on gravel covered ground, their backs against a iron-grey rock, shoulders touching. Before them, a few meters away, they could see the small waves of the lake gently lapping at the rocks, water producing a mellow, almost hypnotic sound._

_Hajime noticed Oikawa’s presence at his side just a beat later, when he tried to stand up, but he couldn’t; he was able to move his arm, though, it was enough._

_So what they experienced in the real world had repercussions in their dreams? Good to know._

_“Iwa-chan…” He turned his head to Oikawa who had watery eyes, like a beaten puppy._

_“Don’t look at me like that, it’s your fault I’m like this!” he said, brusque. He would have never admitted it, but he was happy to see the other alive._

_“I had an accident, I could have died!” Oikawa peeped._

_“What accident?” he narrowed his eyes before he spoke again. “Is it about the race?”_

_Oikawa’s gaze spoke volumes. “I can end up paralyzed… But I can move my arms now, apparently, so it should be fine!”_

_Hajime wanted to ask him more, what the hell did ‘I can end up paralyzed’ mean, but he didn’t have time: the brunet was distracted by the clear water of the lake. “So is this how water looks like on Earth?”_

_Hajime was taken aback by the question, moving his gaze to the whitish wake left by the waves on the shore. “Yes… It was…”_

_He didn’t feel like turning to face Oikawa, but he knew the other was looking at him. If he did, he’d fall apart, right there and then._

_Those last weeks, those last day, had been the most intense in his entire life. And just the thought of losing that stupid head, it made him…_

_“My father took me fishing here once” he said, and a small smile appeared on his lips. “I was seven, but I already knew I hated fishing!” he laughed but his face clouded over the next moment. “Now I’d come back here, though…”_

_He took a long and deep breath, finally cutting loose his thoughts, what he had thought for a long time, but never had the chance to speak out loud. “I can’t say I was an ecologist, sometimes I even hated those who annoyed everyone with that stuff… And yet, now I can’t help but wondering if things could have been better if I had just paid more attention to it…”_

_“Iwa-chan, it wasn’t just up to you…”_

_“I know…”_

_He lifted his eyes to the sky, and he was glad to find it clear, stars starting to fill it up. It appeared divided in three different parts, one darker, one rosy and the last one a pale yellow. He didn’t recognize any of those constellations._

_“They’re the constellations I see from my planet.”Oikawa said, as if he had read his mind._

_Iwaizumi felt he chest tighten. Last time he was able to see the stars had been many, many years ago. He had watched them with someone who couldn’t sleep because she was afraid of the dark._

_“Haruka would have liked them…”_

_At first, Oikawa didn’t pay much attention to what Iwa-chan had just said; then, he realized something, the sentence sounded wrong as if there was a grammatical mistake. But Iwaizumi didn’t make a mistake, he didn’t accidentally use the wrong tense, he did it on purpose._

_Oikawa turned sharply towards him, feeling then his nerves throbbing in pain, but he tried not to pay too much attention to it. Hajime had now lowered his gaze, and it was enough of an explanation. His eyes were watery._

_He swallowed that bitter pill. “When?”_

_“Two days ago…”_

_They both remained silent for a while, and the corners of Tooru’s eyes started to prickle: even if he didn’t know the girl well, he knew how much Iwa-chan loved her, and thanks to his stories, Oikawa had become fond of her too._

_“I’m sorry… If only I had known… I would have done anything to come earlier…”_

_“Tooru” the brunet shifted his eyes on him, and he was serious, eyes still covered by a wet veil. “I said I wanted you to give up, it’s not your fault.”_

_“Yeah, but…”_

_“The only reasons I didn’t let myself die, Tooru, is because I promised Haruka I’d be leaving with you.” The other’s brown eyes went even more wide, and a hoarse breath escaped his throat. He didn’t know what to say. “And when I saw you like that… I realized you’re the only thing I have left, and I couldn’t lose you too.”_

_A single tear, of joy or pain, he didn’t really know, slid down the young pilot’s cheek, his trembling lips trying to bend in a small smile. Hajime let out a nervous laugh, his nape hitting the hard rock._

_“I feel pathetic saying these things to you…”_

_Neither of them said anything, Oikawa just shifted closer to him. It wasn’t easy, because he felt electric shocks through his whole body, but he didn’t give up. His breath was fatigued, but Iwa-chan’s face was just a few centimeters away. They stared at each other for what felt like ages, the tips of their noses touching, forehead against forehead. They never knew who made the first move, but it didn’t really matter in the end._

_The kiss was messy, since they weren’t able to stand the proper way, but they still felt each other’s taste on their lips._

_“It’s starting to get dark…” Hajime said, once the separated to catch their breath, foreheads still touching._

_“We still have some time…” Oikawa went back to kiss him with even more fervor, not giving a damn about the pain he felt down his spine._

_Hajime’s kisses shifted under his jaw, reaching his neck. The brunet let out a moan filled with pleasure, and then his lips were on Iwaizumi’s once again._

_They realized their time was up when a blue light descended upon their faces._

_“Oikawa.” He said, grinning. “Get that starship ready.”_

_The other mirrored that smile. “Count on it!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’M BACK!  
> Hi guys, miss me?  
> Okay, I don’t know why I killed Haruka… Maybe ‘cause I’m a sadist and a masochist? Probably. And I’m so, so sorry. Seriously.  
> Also, the bond between Iwa-chan and Oikawa is different from the other soulmate bonds: they feel each other’s pain, but actual wounds and bruises disappear immediately. So, Iwa-chan is not paralyzed, but his body hurts.  
> The JAXA is the Japanese NASA and the base of Kagoshimareally exists . The song at the beginning of this chapter is [“Saturn” by Sleeping At Last](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzNvk80XY9s) (CAN YOU HEAR ME CRYING?)  
> I want to say thank you (again) to [argentoheart](http://archiveofourown.org/users/argentoheart/pseuds/argentoheart) and [The Beta Reader](http://b3tar3ad3r.tumblr.com/), you are doing a great job ♥  
> I also want to say thank you to misterlion and Szeherezada for their comments ♥  
> And thanks to anyone who reads this story!  
> See ya ♥

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I’m really trying to write this notes, ‘cause I’m the one who wrote this story, yeah, but it was my amazing beta reader who translated it. So, you can also find this story in Italian ([here](http://www.efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3653016&i=1)). The english version was beta'd by [The Beta Reader](http://b3tar3ad3r.tumblr.com/).  
> I’ve added some elements from Interstellar, I really love this film, and I was also inspired by the idea of soul-bound from Your Name.  
> Trappist-1 is the system discovered by NASA and it includes seven or eight planets, I think. I chose the seventh planet and ‘Sibun’ means ‘seven’ in gothic. Also, the other planets (Knossos and Festus) got their names from the two Minoan palaces and Juno was the ancient greek goddess who protected pregnant women. ‘Ingnis’ means ‘fire’ in latin. Asimo is a humanoid robot and it was created by a scientists’ team in Japan. BMO is a console from Adventure Time. The first lines come from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YAAyUFL1GQ).  
> So, guys, I hope you enjoyed it! And please, leave a small comment if you want ♥  
> See ya ♥


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